First Norwegian seismological
station to monitor compliance
with CTBT certified

First Norwegian seismological
station to monitor compliance
with CTBT certified

The first Norwegian seismological station in the global network of stations that will monitor compliance with the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) has been certified by the Vienna-based Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO). Two other primary seismological stations - one at Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories of Canada and the other at Mina, Nevada, in the United States of America - have also been certified by the Commission as meeting the stringent operational requirements of the Treaty´s global verification regime.

For 30 years, the array station at Hamar has demonstrated some of the best capabilities in the world for detecting seismological events and, through Norwegian research programmes, has contributed significantly to the development of seismological verification techniques. The Hamar station, like the Yellowknife station, can detect seismic events occurring up to 10,000 kilometres away down to a seismic magnitude of less than 4 (equivalent to a yield of l kiloton). These excellent results led, during the negotiations on the CTBT, to the selection of many other seismic array stations to form part of the seismological network to monitor compliance with the Treaty´s ban on nuclear explosive tests.

Norway signed the CTBT on 24 September 1996 and ratified it on 15 July 1999. Under the Treaty´s global verification regime, the worldwide network of 321 monitoring stations (six of which are being hosted by Norway) that are being progressively established or upgraded will be able to record data generated by nuclear explosions and other sources in the atmosphere, under water or underground. The monitoring stations will transmit, via satellite in near real time, the data to the International Data Centre (IDC) at the CTBTO Preparatory Commission in Vienna, where the data will be used to detect, locate and characterize events. These data and IDC products will be made available to States Signatories for final analysis.